The persecution of Yazidis has been ongoing since at least the 12th century. [1] [2] [3] [4] Yazidis are an endogamous and mostly Kurmanji-speaking [5] minority, indigenous to Kurdistan. [6] The Yazidi religion is regarded as "devil-worship" by Muslims and Islamists. [1] [2] [7] [8] Yazidis have been persecuted by the surrounding Muslims since the medieval ages, most notably by Safavids [ citation needed ], Ottomans, neighbouring Muslim Arab and Kurdish tribes and principalities. [1] [3] [9] [10] After the 2014 Sinjar massacre of thousands of Yazidis by ISIL, which started the ethnic, cultural, and religious genocide of the Yazidis in Iraq, [1] Yazidis still face discrimination from the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
After some Kurdish tribes became Islamized in the 10th century, they joined in the persecution of Yazidis in the Hakkari mountains. [3] [11] Due to their religion, Muslim Kurds persecuted and attacked the Yazidis with particular brutality. [3] [2] [11] [12] Sometimes, during these massacres, Muslim Kurds tried to force the Yazidis to convert to Islam. [13] [14] [11] Almost the whole Yazidi population were nearly wiped out by massacres carried out by Muslim Kurds and Turks in the 19th century. [15] [16]
In 1254, Sheikh Adī’s grand-nephew al-Ḥasan b. ‘Adī together with 200 of his supporters were executed by Badr al-Din Lu'Lu, who was an Armenian convert to Islam and Zangid governor of Mosul, Sheikh Adi's tomb at Lalish was then desecrated.
In 1415, a Shāfi‘ī theologian, ‘Izz al-Dīn al Hulwānī, with the military support of the Sunni Kurds of the Sindi tribe and the lord of Ḥiṣn Kayfā, attacked Lalish and burnt down the temple. The Yazidis later rebuilt their temple and the tomb of Sheikh Adi. [17] [18] [19]
In the year 1585, the Yazidis in the Sinjar mountain were attacked by the Sunni Kurds from Bohtan. [21]
In the year 1832, about 70,000 Yazidis were killed by the Sunni Kurdish princes Bedir Khan Beg and Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz. [22] During his research trips in 1843, the Russian traveller and orientalist Ilya Berezin mentioned that 7,000 Yazidis were killed by Kurds of Rawandiz on the hills of Nineveh near Mosul, shortly before his arrival. [23] According to many historical reports[ which? ], the Bedir Khan massacres can today be classified as a genocide. [24]
In 1831, Muhammad Pasha massacred the people of the Kellek village. He then went northward and attacked the entire Yazidi-inhabited foothill country which was located east of Mosul. Some Yazidis managed to take refuge in the neighboring forests and mountain fastnesses, and a few of them managed to escape to distant places. [25]
In 1832, Muhammad Pasha and his troops committed a massacre against the Yazidis in Khatarah. Subsequently, they attacked the Yazidis in Shekhan and killed many of them. [27] In another attempt he and his troops occupied over 300 Yazidi villages. The emir kidnapped over 10,000 Yazidis and sent them to Rawandiz and gave them the ultimatum of converting to Islam or being killed. Most of them converted to Islam and those who refused to convert to Islam were killed. [28]
In 1832, Bedir Khan Beg and his troops committed a massacre against the Yazidis in Shekhan. His men almost killed the whole Yazidi population of Shekhan. Some Yazidis tried to escape to Sinjar. [29] [30] [31] When they attempted to escape towards Sinjar, many of them drowned in the Tigris river. Those who could not swim were killed. About 12,000 Yazidis were killed on the bank of the Tigris river by Bedir Khan Beg's men. Yazidi women and children were also kidnapped. [32]
In 1833, the Yazidis who lived in the Aqrah region were again attacked by Muhammad Pasha and his soldiers. The perpetrators killed 500 Yazidis in the Greater Zab. Afterwards, Muhammad Pasha and his troops attacked the Yazidis who lived in Sinjar and killed many of them. [33]
In 1844, Bedir Khan Beg and his men committed a massacre against the Yazidis in the Tur Abdin region. His men also captured many Yazidis and forced them to convert to Islam. The inhabitants of seven Yazidi villages were all forced to convert to Islam. [32]
Many Yazidis also defended themselves against the attacks. So did Ali Beg, the Yazidi leader in Sheikhan. The Yazidi leader Ali Beg mobilized his forces in order to oppose Muhammad Pasha, who mobilized the Kurdish tribes which lived in the surrounding mountains in order to launch an attack against the Yazidis. Ali Beg's troops were outnumbered and he was captured and killed by Muhammad Pasha. [26]
After the Ottomans had given the Yazidis a certain legal status in 1849 through repeated interventions by Stratford Canning and Sir Austen Henry Layard, [34] they sent their Ottoman general Omar Wahbi Pasha (later known as "Ferîq Pasha" in the memory of the Yazidis) [34] in 1890 [35] or 1892 [34] from Mosul to the Yazidis in Shaikhan and again gave the Yazidis an ultimatum to convert to Islam. When the Yazidis refused, the areas of Sinjar and Shaykhan were occupied and another massacre committed among the residents. The Ottoman rulers mobilized the Hamidiye cavalry, later founded in 1891, to take action against the Yazidis. Many Yazidi villages were attacked by the Hamidiye cavalry and the residents were killed. The Yazidi villages of Bashiqa and Bahzani were also raided and many Yazidi temples were destroyed. The Yazidi Mir Ali Beg was captured and held in Kastamonu. The central shrine of the Yazidis Lalish was converted into a Quran school. This condition lasted for twelve years until the Yazidis were able to recapture their main shrine Lalish. [35]
During the Armenian genocide, many Yazidis were killed by Hamidiye cavalry. [36] According to Aziz Tamoyan, as many as 300,000 Yazidis were killed with the Armenians, while others fled to Transcaucasia. [37]
Despite the fact that the Yazidis hid 20,000 Christians from the Ottomans in the Sinjar Mountains during the Armenian genocide [38] and many Yazidis found refuge in Armenia as they fled from the Kurds and Turks, [37] the Yazidis were discriminated against in Armenia. Yazidi children tended to hide their identities in schools so they would not be discriminated against. [39] Furthermore, the term "Yezidi" is often used by non-Yazidis as an insult. [40]
In 1921, Yazidis in the Kingdom of Iraq under British rule were oppressed and attacked by the British army. The British Army attacked Yazidi villages between 1925 and 1935, killing over 100 Yazidis, including a Yazidi leader. [41] According to Arbella Bet-Shlimon, in 1935 the Iraqi Army attacked eleven Yazidi villages, placed Sinjar under martial law, and then sentenced many Yazidi prisoners to death or to long sentences because they had resisted mandatory conscription; some of the prisoners were even paraded in front of a jeering crowd in Mosul that killed one of the captives. [42]
In the 21st century, Yazidis faced targeted violence from insurgents during the Iraq War, including an April 2007 massacre that killed 23, and the 2007 Yazidi communities bombings, which killed 796. The Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ) was set up to defend Yazidis in the aftermath of these attacks. [43]
The genocide of Yazidis by ISIL, which began with the 2014 Sinjar massacre, led to the expulsion, flight and effective exile of the Yazidis from their ancestral lands in Sinjar. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls were forced into sexual slavery by the Sunni fundamentalist majority-Arab terrorist group ISIL, and thousands of Yazidi men were killed. [44] Five thousand Yazidi civilians were killed [45] during what has been called a "forced conversion campaign" [46] [47] being carried out by ISIL in Northern Iraq. The genocide began after the withdrawal of the KRG's Peshmerga militia, which left the Yazidis defenseless. [48] [49] Among the reasons for the Peshmerga's retreat was the unwillingness of the Sunnis in the ranks to fight fellow Muslims in the defence of Yazidis. [50] ISIL's persecution of the Yazidis gained international attention and led to another American-led intervention in Iraq, which started with United States airstrikes against ISIL. Kurdistan Workers' Party, People's Protection Units, and Syriac Military Council fighters then opened a humanitarian corridor to the Sinjar Mountains. [51] [52] [53] [54]
Since 2016, many Yazidis in Syria have fled from the Afrin region to the relative safety of the secular Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, [55] because of fears of persecution by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, an overwhelmingly Sunni militia. [56] [57]
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the Kurdish authorities have used heavy-handed tactics against the Yazidis and was accused of kidnapping and beating two Yazidi men belonging to the Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress who criticized the actions of the authorities. After the Kurdish authorities kidnapped them, they gave them two options, either they would accept that they were Kurds or they would confess that they were "terrorists". In addition, the Kurdish officers asked which language they speak. When the Yazidis replied "Yazidi", they were further tortured. [58]
There have also been some demographic changes in Yazidi-majority areas after the fall of Saddam. In the Sheikhan area, which is considered a historic Yazidi stronghold, the Kurdish authorities have settled Sunni Kurds to strengthen their claim that it should be included within the Kurdistan Region. [59] In modern times, Kurdistan Region is accused of taking over traditional Yazidi settlements. [59] [60]
According to Yazidi activists reports, since 2003 about 30 Yazidi women and girls were kidnapped and forcibly married with members of the Kurdish security force Asayish. [61]
All of the massacres of the Yazidis were committed by the Muslim side.[ citation needed ]During their history, the Yazidis have mostly been under the pressure of their Muslim neighbors, which led to violence and massacres at times.
Kurdish muftis have given the persecution of Yazidis a religious character and they have also legalized it. [25] Also Kurdish mullahs such as Mahmud Bayazidi viewed the Yazidis as unbelievers. [2]
Remembering persecution is a central part of Yazidi identity. [62] The Yazidis speak of 74 genocides of them in their history and call these genocides "Farman". The number of 72 Farman can be derived from the oral traditions and folk songs of the Yazidis. [63] [64] The last Farman is number 74 and denotes the genocide of the Yazidis by the IS terrorists. [65] [11] [12] [66]
Bedir Khan Beg was the last Kurdish Mîr and mütesellim of the Emirate of Botan.
Kurmanji, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions. It is the most widely spoken form of Kurdish.
Sinjar is a town in the Sinjar District of the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. It is located about five kilometers south of the Sinjar Mountains. Its population in 2013 was estimated at 88,023, and is predominantly Yazidi.
Lalish is a mountain valley and temple located in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq,. It is the holiest temple of the Yazidis. It is the location of the tomb of the Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, a central figure of the Yazidi faith.
Bohtan was a medieval Kurdish principality in the Ottoman Empire centered on the town of Jazirah ibn 'Omar (modern Cizre also known as Cizîra Botan in southeastern Anatolia. The official religion of this principality was Yezidism in 14th century, although the rulers eventually converted to Islam, Bohtan constituted the third major Yezidi enclave after Shekhan and Sinjar until the 19th century.
The Qahtaniyah bombings occurred on August 14, 2007, when four coordinated suicide car bomb attacks detonated in the Yazidi towns of Til Ezer (al-Qahtaniyah) and Siba Sheikh Khidir (al-Jazirah), in northern Iraq.
Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis, are a Kurdish-speaking endogamous religious group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq, primarily in the governorates of Nineveh and Duhok.
The Sinjar Mountains, are a 100-kilometre-long (62 mi) mountain range that runs east to west, rising above the surrounding alluvial steppe plains in northwestern Iraq to an elevation of 1,463 meters (4,800 ft). The highest segment of these mountains, about 75 km (47 mi) long, lies in the Nineveh Governorate. The western and lower segment of these mountains lies in Syria and is about 25 km (16 mi) long. The city of Sinjar is just south of the range. These mountains are regarded as sacred by the Yazidis.
The Sinjar Resistance Units is a Yazidi militia formed in Iraq in 2007 to protect Yazidis in Iraq in the wake of attacks by Sunni Islamist insurgents. It is the second largest Yazidi militia, after the Êzîdxan Protection Force (HPÊ). However, it is much more active than the HPÊ in fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The Sinjar District or the Shingal District is a district of the Nineveh Governorate. The district seat is the town of Sinjar. The district has two subdistricts, al-Shemal and al-Qayrawan. The district is one of two major population centers for Yazidis, the other being Shekhan District.
The Sinjar massacre marked the beginning of the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL, the killing and abduction of thousands of Yazidi men, women and children. It took place in August 2014 in Sinjar city and Sinjar District in Iraq's Nineveh Governorate and was perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The massacre began with ISIL attacking and capturing Sinjar and neighboring towns on 3 August, during its Northern Iraq offensive.
Between 1 and 15 August 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) expanded territory in northern Iraq under their control. In the region north and west from Mosul, the Islamic State conquered Zumar, Sinjar, Wana, Mosul Dam, Qaraqosh, Tel Keppe, Batnaya and Kocho, and in the region south and east of Mosul the towns Bakhdida, Karamlish, Bartella and Makhmour
Yazidism in Turkey refers to adherents of Yazidism from Turkey, who remained in Turkey after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The Yazidis living in Turkey during and after the second half of the 20th century gradually left for European countries. In the 1980s, there were 60,000 Yazidis situated in Beşiri, Kurtalan, Bismil, Midyat, Idil, Cizre, Nusaybin, Viranşehir, Suruç and Bozova. Today, these places are almost empty due to exodus to Europe which was provoked by political, religious and economic difficulties. Today only small number remain in villages around Midyat, Viranşehir, Çınar and Beşiri. According to the census of 2000, only 423 individuals adhering to Yazidism remained in the country.
Between 1968 and 2003, the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of the Iraqi Republic perpetrated multiple campaigns of demographic engineering against the country's non-Arabs. While Arabs constitute the majority of Iraq's population as a whole, they are not the majority in parts of northern Iraq, and a minority in Iraqi Kurdistan. In an attempt to Arabize the north, the Iraqi government pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing, killing and forcefully displacing a large number of Iraqi minorities—predominantly Kurds, but also Turkmen, Yazidis, Assyrians, Shabaks, Mandaeans, and Armenians, among others—and subsequently allotting the cleared land to Arab settlers. In 1978 and 1979 alone, 600 Kurdish villages were burned down and around 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.
The November Sinjar offensive was a combination of operations of Kurdish Peshmerga, PKK, and Yezidi Kurd militias in November 2015, to recapture the city of Sinjar from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. It resulted in a decisive victory for the Kurdish forces, who expelled the ISIL militants from Sinjar and regained control of Highway 47, which until then had served as the major supply route between the ISIL strongholds of Raqqa and Mosul.
The Yazidi genocide was perpetrated by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017. It was characterized by massacres, genocidal rape, and forced conversions to Islam. The Yazidi people, who are non-Arabs, are indigenous to Kurdistan and adhere to Yazidism, which is an Iranian religion derived from the Indo-Iranian tradition. Over a period of three years, Islamic State militants trafficked thousands of Yazidi women and girls and killed thousands of Yazidi men; the United Nations reported that the Islamic State killed about 5,000 Yazidis and trafficked about 10,800 Yazidi women and girls in a "forced conversion campaign" throughout Iraq. By 2015, upwards of 71% of the global Yazidi population was displaced by the genocide, with most Yazidi refugees having fled to Iraq's Kurdistan Region and Syria's Rojava. The persecution of Yazidis, along with other religious minorities, took place after the Islamic State's Northern Iraq offensive of June 2014.
Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz was Kurdish Mir of the Soran Emirate (1813–1838). He led an unsuccessful attack against the Emirate of Botan of Bedir Khan Beg in 1834.
Ridwan or Redwan was a place in the Ottoman Empire that was inhabited by Yazidis.
Alphabetical index of articles about the Yazidis, and their history and culture.
Dasini or Daseni, Dasiniyya, Tasini is a Kurdish yazidi tribe and Ethnonym of Yazidis. The tribe resided near Mosul, Duhok, Sheikhan, Sinjar and all the way to the west bank of Greater Zab river.
Throughout history, there was no shortage of attempts by Kurdish Muslims to violently convert the Yazidis to Islam.
The Yazidis were nearly wiped out in massacres which were committed against them by Turks and Kurds.
Massacres at the hands of the Ottoman Turks and Kurdish princes almost wiped out the Yazidis during the 19th century.
In one incident, Kurdish intelligence officers arrested two Yazidi activists, Khalil Rashu Alias and Wageed Mendo Hamoo, in May 2007. The two told Human Rights Watch that Kurdish authorities imprisoned the pair for almost six months and tortured them for resisting what they called the Kurdish colonization of their territory in Sinjar.